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We’ve become used to looking at unclear images of the Moon’s surface taken about 50 years ago, but the newest collection of photos issued by the Chinese space agency comprise some of the clearest pictures ever taken. These stunning pictures were taken by the Chinese Space Agency’s Yutu lunar rover.  Yutu lunar rover is also known as the “Jade Rabbit”. It landed on the Moon on 14 December 2013 as part of the Chang’e-3 Moon mission. Yutu captured photographs in stunning HD quality, displaying the rocky lunar surface, rover tracks and remarkable rock formations. The rover became motionless on 25 January 2014 – just 42 days into a three-month mission – due to technical glitches. The main problem was that it was unable to replenish its solar power supplies. Despite this problem, the Yutu’s tools continued to work, letting it to record data and take these astonishing pictures from a stationary position. Unlike NASA or the European Space Agency, the China National Space Administration...

It’s been hardly two weeks since Elon Musk’s SpaceX magnificently launched the first Falcon Heavy into orbit and also a red Tesla Roadster. Many of us are interested as to where it and its unconventional passenger are at the moment. Sending Tesla Roadster was a good decision and it was just a test flight. On board the car is a mannequin lovingly called “Starman.” Starman, who is outfitted in a SpaceX spacesuit, was apparently en route towards the orbit of Mars and then due to over thrust now towards the asteroid belt, to the song of David Bowie’s music. Musk has admitted that Starman’s route after launch had gone a little off from its planned path. And now it turns out, it might not have veered off that far as projected earlier. According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory , which unconfined data as to the Roadster’s location. Now you can easily find out the exact location of the Roadster and Starman using NASA’s data, which engineer Ben Pearson has brilliantly put into a website cal...

Feast your eyes, my good curious friends, on this — by far the clearest image ever taken of a very young star and its newly formed protoplanetary disk. In this spectacular image you can see the young star HL Tau, which is just about one million years old. This image is truly a marvel of science. Around this star, dust and gas swirl, slowly developing into planets and asteroids. You may or may not believe it but a few billion years ago, this is precisely what our very own Solar System would’ve looked like. This amazing image was taken by ALMA. ALMA stands for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. It is a huge telescope consisting of 66 separate antennas, situated high up in the Atacama Desert in northern parts of Chile. ALMA is operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). According to ESO this image comes from some of the telescopes first observations in its “new and most powerful mode”. ALMA has been under construction for years, but only a few year ago, they h...

Researchers at NASA have just discovered that the biggest black holes in the known universe are growing faster than previous researches revealed. The speed at which 'supermassive' black holes – massive celestial bodies at the center of big galaxies - are expanding outstrips the pace at which their galaxies can produce new stars.  This ultimately means that numerous of the universe's major black holes are far greater than first thought, and they might be slowly wiping out their own parent galaxies, researchers say. This major discovery might re-shape our basic understanding of how galaxies and their massive black holes form and co-exist. Black holes are present in the middle of most galaxies. These Black holes are so dense that nothing, not even light, can escape their intense gravitational pull. These Black holes are formed when the center of a very massive star, at its last stages, collapses in upon itself. Data gathered by previous researches has recommended that bla...

Another deluge of curio mounts as the astronomer, Dustin Lang from the University of Toronto, tweeted about a baffling X-shaped bulge, comprising stars and interstellar matter, lying at the heart of Milky Way’s flat structure. Further analysis of this massive structure can lend a fair insight of how the galaxy was formed, scientists envision.  “The bulge is a key signature of formation of the Milky Way. If we understand the bulge, we will understand the key processes that have formed and shaped our galaxy” says Melissa Ness, who is a postdoctoral researcher from the Max Planck institute for Astronomy, Germany. Milky Way. NASA/JPL-Caltech/S. Stolovy (SSC/Caltech) “The X-shaped morphology of the bulge in itself and the fraction of bulge stars that comprise orbits within this structure has important implications for the formation history of the Milky Way, and spiral galaxies in general” published by Ness and Lang , who are expected to team up as a proper and detailed research starts ...

Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons has recently emerged as a top priority in the search for alien life. NASA has already announced their plans to send a robot to the moon with plans to carry out an investigation, but it is very possible that the agency might be beaten by a Russian billionaire. Yuri Milner has used his enormous wealth multiple times to advance the our current knowledge and understandings of the cosmos. For example, he has collaborated with physicist Stephen Hawking in creating an idea of an interstellar spacecraft. This concept has become a key component in the project named Breakthrough Starshot . Currently, Milner has taken on a new project. He plans to send an inexpensive probe to the moon Enceladus in hopes of finding life in one form or another in the geysers that are on its surface. He suspects that a mission that is backed by a major space agency (such as NASA, for example,) can possibly take as long as a decade to truly materialize. He also believes that t...

Jupiter, the enormous gas giant is known to have breathtaking patterns across its surface, with images proving its beauty true. Now, new photographs courtesy of NASA’s Juno spacecraft. No, your eyes are not fooling you that is in fact an image of the gas giant’s surface, not an abstract painting created by the hand of an artist. Breathtaking screenshot of Jupiter's atmosphere from short movie "Wanderers" This image was processed by citizen scientists Gerald Eichstadt, and Sean Doran who enhanced the image’s best aspects and despite all of this, the swirls remain fully original.   NASA captures stunning image of Jupiter and its clouds NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/ Seán Doran) Jupiter is unique and nothing on Earth compares to the complexity, ferocity, and beauty of Jupiter’s storms which intertwine with each other within the planet’s atmosphere which forms Jupiter’s infamous storms. The images presented here were taken from a distance of just 11,747 miles (...

China’s Dark Matter Foray Quantum physics has seen tremendous advances and a new hunt is in place: the search for dark energy. As this search continues by American and European scientists, China continues to close the gap in scientific prowess. For example, according to recently reported results , China-led space mission has revealed auspicious symptoms of dark matter.  Despite no direct evidence of dark matter was found, this still remains the first observational data courtesy of China’s very first mission exclusively designed for astrophysics. Welcome the dark horse in the competition. For centuries, the hunt for dark matter has haunted the dreams of astrophysicists. Ever since Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky first discovered that the mass of all of the particles within the Coma cluster of galaxies was responsible for a mere one percent of the mass required to generate sufficient gravity necessary for the galaxy in order to protect itself from dissembling. This was the spark to a ...

According to the China Academy and a collection of scientists of Space Technology (CAST), NASA’s recent results “reconfirm” what they had already achieved and have ideas and plans to implement it as quickly as possible into their satellites. China also claims that they have already constructed an operating prototype of the engine that is claimed to be impossible to constructed for it is a reactionless engine.  There are also rumors that they are already testing it in orbit aboard the Tiangong-2 space laboratory. This EmDrive, radical and fuel-free has has also recently stirred up a controversy after a paper was published by NASA, in which NASA appeared to suggest that they had successfully accomplished such a feat. If this is true, the implementations of this technology would be massive. For example, the modern satellite would become half its size and not require fuel. Fantastic. IBTimes UK reports that at a press conference located in Beijing, China, researchers with CAST confirm...

At times, scientists observe flashes of radio bursts with astounding levels of energy, which are called Fast Radio Bursts (FRB’S). Such a flash was observed in 2001, a brilliant burst of light breaching the skies was observed. This event was so powerful that in the matter of seconds, power was released that was equivalent to that of 500 million suns. Just as fast as it had come, the signal disappeared in the matter of milliseconds.  Ever since such an occurrence in 2001, approximately 30 of such flashes have been identified. However, new estimates indicate that these flashes occur almost every second. Dr.Avi Loeb, science professor of Harvard University, says that “in the time it takes you to drink a cup of coffee, hundreds of FRB’s may have gone off somewhere in the universe.”  The origins these flashes remain unknown but an explanation may have been found. The FRB 121102 is the only one of such flashes that repeats. In fact, scientists have observed at least 150 flashes fro...

Prepare for astounding investigation, for the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) has elaborated the 13 proposals that will compromise the initial set of scientific observations carried out by the highly anticipated James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).  The James Webb Space Telescope is a component of NASA’s Next Generation Telescope program that is to be launched in 2019, developed by NASA, Canadian Space Agency, and the European Space Agency.  JWST will ultimately provide unprecedented resolution and amazing sensitivity from the long-wavelength visible light through the mid-infrared range. John C. Mather, senior project scientist for the Webb telescope and senior astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland spoke out about the telescope in a news release: “I’m thrilled to see the list of astronomer’s most fascinating targets for the Webb telescope and extremely eager to see the results. We fully expect to be surprised by what we find.” ...

It has been asked frequently-- how come only the past is present in our memories and not the future? Why time travel is not an actuality and the process of aging is irreversible? Why is entropy a definitive constant? What came before the Big Bang? Was time existent before the Big Bang?  The answers to these complex questions can be potentially traced to the moment of the Big Bang. Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist of California Institute of Technology whose research focuses on theoretical physics, astrophysics and issues in cosmology, gravitation and field theory addresses this question below. Time definitively infuses our lives for it is constantly measured. It’s tracked, put to use, machines employ time and others are built to keep track of its passage and measure it just as a ruler measures distances. There is a stark difference between the ruler and the clock-- time doesn’t necessarily employ distances but it does take use of direction pointing past from future. Sean Carroll’...